Church's 4th Sex Case Ends

Parishioner Admits Fondling

A parishioner who sexually fondled a little girl in a church nursery became the fourth person at Waukegan's Christian Fellowship Church to be convicted of sex-related offenses.

The guilty plea entered Monday by Michael T. Larson, 27, to a misdemeanor charge of sexual abuse came as the church continued to battle legal attacks on several fronts.

Larson, as part of a plea agreement under which he will avoid a possible prison sentence, admitted that he sexually fondled a 6-year-old girl, who was then in his care, in the church nursery last August. Also as part of that agreement, the state agreed not to press charges that Larson also sexually abused the girl's 3 1/2-year-old sister.

Defense attorney Jed Stone contended that the plea agreement was a victory for Larson, who is from Waukegan and a longtime member of the Christian Fellowship Church.

"I define a win as when my client and I walk out the same door," Stone said in a news release distributed after Larson's plea. "Mike will go home today and put this nightmare behind him. What could be worse than being the victim of false accusations of child sex abuse?"

But Assistant State's Atty. Sean Burke, the prosecutor in the case, said Larson will still have a criminal conviction on his record. And he faces up to four months in the Lake County Jail's work-release program when he is sentenced next month by Lake County Judge Harry D. Hartel Jr., Burke said after court.

"Mr. Larson and his attorney stipulated to the facts in the case. He could have gone to trial if he had wanted to," the prosecutor said.

At Monday's hearing before Hartel, both sides agreed that rson was guilty of fondling the little girl.

Larson's guilty plea came as the Illinois Supreme Court agreed to consider whether criminal charges of perjury should be reinstated against Rev. Lloyd R. Davis, 57, pastor of the Christian Fellowship Church.

Davis is serving a 31-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting two teenage boys in the church. The sentence and sexual assault convictions were unanimously upheld last month by the Illinois Appellate Court in Elgin.

Two assistant pastors of the church pleaded guilty to unlawful restraint in connection with the 1988 sexual assaults of the two boys, who were then 14 and 15 years old. The pastors were placed on probation.

The perjury charges against Davis were thrown out in 1992 by Lake County Judge Christopher Starck. The charges alleged that Davis had committed perjury when he stated in a deposition in a civil lawsuit that he had never had oral or anal sex with young men or boys.

"Now there is a hope that we may ultimately prosecute Mr. Davis on the perjury counts," he said.

Starck, relying on previous Illinois court rulings, said he had to dismiss the perjury charges on a technicality, because the civil suit never went to trial.

Meanwhile, Peter Paine, the interim pastor of the church and Davis' son-in-law, on Monday disputed published reports that the church paid damages to one of the youths Davis sexually assaulted. The youth had brought a $1 million lawsuit in San Diego against the Christian Fellowship Church.

Paine said no church funds were paid to the victim. But he conceded that monies were paid on the church's behalf by its insurance carrier.

"It's legally the same," said Chancey, who prosecuted Davis two years ago. "That is what you call a distinction without a difference. The settlement was against the church, note he insurance carrier."

Assistant State's Atty. Jeffrey Pavletic said the settlement was between $300,000 and $400,000.

But Paine disputed those figures in an interview Monday. "That's a lie," Paine said. "Why don't you find out what it really was?"

Asked what the settlement amount was, Paine said he did not know.

A San Diego attorney who represented the insurance carrier for the church could not be reached for comment.